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January 26, 2006

Television used to represent a sort of alternate reality in which Christians were never seen or heard. I didn’t have too much of a problem with that. But now days it seems increasingly popular to feature guest characters who portray Christians as disingenuous, ignorant, or intolerant.

For example, a recent episode of E.R. one of the characters – a lesbian – was reunited with her mother after having been given up for adoption as a child. Her mother was touring with a Christian singing group and stopped by to meet her. When the mother discovered her daughter was a lesbian, she was appalled. Later in the episode she attempted to reconcile with the daughter by saying that she loved her anyway. The daughter threw it back in her face, saying, “I don’t want your love without your acceptance”.

Think about what she is saying for a moment. The daughter didn’t want her mother’s love unless she would also accept her choice to live a homosexual lifestyle. However, the daughter was equally unable to accept her mother for her beliefs, which told her that homosexuality was a sin that cannot be condoned.

So, who’s the hypocrite here? Of course, we are expected to side with the daughter, and the lesson learned is supposed to be that we should not only love everyone but embrace everyone for their beliefs, no matter how much we personally disagree with them. Instead, a viewer paying attention will merely learn that people are quick to dismiss Christians as “a bunch of hypocrites,” not realizing that in saying so they are merely revealing the hypocrisy in themselves.

Another example was on an episode of "Bones." A DJ was found dead and appeared to have overdosed on methamphetamines. As it turns out, he had been framed, and was a Christian DJ. His father, defending his son, says something along the lines of, “My son didn’t do drugs. He was a good kid. I taught him to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Do you understand what I’m saying? A personal relationship! Look at this plaster cast of his hands he made as a boy. When he was young, I took this to a palm reader, and she said she didn’t see any evil in these hands. So please, find the killer.”

What? In one breath you talk about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and about consulting a palm reader? Who writes this stuff?

The father also makes some cheesy comment about “iniquity” being a “Bible word”. Uhhh…actually, it’s just an archaic English word. Unless you believe the Bible to have been originally written in King James English.

But the latest and most annoying example of Christian portrayal on Television was this past week on “Lost”. The character Eko is a Catholic priest. He tells the character Claire that her baby needs to be baptized. He says, “Do you know what baptism means?” to which she replies, “It makes it so you get into heaven”. He smiles in response. I expected him to correct her, pointing out that no just God would send someone to hell for not having water ritualistically dumped on their head. But instead, he validates her statement.

Then he says this, “When John baptized Jesus, it is said that the heavens opened up and a dove came down. This told John something. It told him that he had just cleansed this man of all his sins.” After this he baptized both the mother and the baby.

Now, I don’t care what denomination a Christian comes from: No Christian believes that Christ was baptized in order to be forgiven of his sins. Christ was equally God and man. He committed no sin. These are basic and essential tenets of Christianity. Besides, when Jesus approaches John for baptism, John says, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”, says that he isn’t even fit to untie Jesus’ sandal, and that Jesus should instead be baptizing him. And even when John is baptising others, he makes it clear that baptism is a sign of repentance, not an act that grants salvation from sin.

So I wonder: Is it that hard for the script writers on these shows to find somebody in Hollywood to consult with who has at least opened the Bible before having characters pretend to share what it says? Could be. But I’d rather Christians not be represented on television at all than be portrayed as a pack of hypocrites and superstitious fools.

November 10, 2005

I stumbled across this set on eBay, and figured it was a bootleg.Turns out, it is an official Chinese release of all 98 episodes of the original Transformers TV series.Twenty-four DVDs with four episodes on each, plus Transformers: The Movie, all contained in an attractive wooden (well, particle-board) box.There’s even a poster of Optimus Prime and Hot Rod included.

Even better, though, is the fact that all episodes are presented in the original English.All you have to do is turn off the Chinese subtitles.The image quality is as good as can be expected, with no compression artifacts that I can see.

So far, my son Sidney and I have watched about 32 episodes.I had forgotten almost everything about the show except for the characters, and really didn’t expect much from the stories.I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the stories for many of the episodes are actually interesting.

There are three seasons of Generation 1, with the movie falling between Seasons 2 and 3.Season 1 is short, and full of animation mistakes (All three Decepticon jets randomly colored like each other, reversed transformation sequences, the occasional blue Optimus Prime, etc.).Season 2 has new Transformers popping in out of nowhere around episode 28, as if they’ve always been there and we just haven’t met them.

The best thing about this set is how cheap it is!You can get the whole thing for less than $60 on eBay, shipping from China included.Considering that the series was broken up into about 6 DVD sets here in the US, each one sold for between $30-$40, it’s a real bargain.

April 07, 2004

According to Osamu Tezuka's original 1950s comic, AstroBoy (Tetsuwan Atomu or "Mighty Atom" to the Japanese) was brought to life at the Ministry of Science on April 7, 2003. That makes this his 1st birthday.

Too bad his new animated series hasn't been received so well here in the states. The animation is very good. The WB showed it for about three Saturdays, then CartoonNetwork's Toonami tried to keep it alive daily for about two weeks. I guess American kids aren't interested if there isn't a collectible card game attached to it...

April 02, 2004

When a TV series has a new episode (especially on the WB or UPN) the commercials advertise it as being "All New". What does that even mean? Are they sometimes partially new? Like, maybe if it was a flashback episode they'd list it as being "30% New"?

Frankly, it's not all new. Everytime I watch Angel or Smallville they have the same opening credits. I think I've got a case here...this could be the beginning of a frivolous lawsuit.

March 31, 2004

Episode 13 of Star Wars: Clone Wars aired last night, and it was the best episode to date by far. Mace Windu spent 5 minutes dispatching droids in unique ways while his lightsaber was lost. At one point he used the Force to disassemble a super battle droid and shredded another group of droids with the parts.

If you aren't watching this series of 20 Lucas-approved 5 minute shorts, you should be. This isn't the Ewoks cartoon. These are actually meant to fill in story between Attack of the Clones and Episode III. The next episode airs tonight, and you can catch all the previous episodes on the website.

Favorite Books

Ravi Zacharias: Can Man Live Without God?An amazing book that makes the case for God not by citing the Bible or great theologians, but by analyzing the philosophies of famous atheists and showing their flaws.

C. S. Lewis: Mere ChristianityC.S. Lewis was an atheist for much of his life. Appropriately, this book makes the case for the existance of God first and Christianity second with carefully outlined and surprisingly simple reasoning. I consider this required reading for anyone searching for meaning.

C. S. Lewis: Space TrilogyReligious Sci-Fi Fantasy: A very tiny genre. In "Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", and "That Hiddeous Strength", C.S. Lewis manages to tackle difficult theological questions as we follow Dr. Ransom in his adventures on Mars, Venus, and back on Earth. My favorite science fiction series by far.